Johan Botha (born 10 January 1974) is a South African middle-distance runner who won the gold medal over

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since th ...

at the World Indoor Championships in Athletics in

Maebashi is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . I ...

in 1999. In the course of the race he defeated world record holder

Wilson Kipketer Wilson Kosgei Kipketer (born 12 December 1972) is a Danish former middle distance runner. He is the second fastest of all time over 800 meters, setting the world record and breaking his own record two more times all in 1997. He dominated the ...

and

Nico Motchebon Nico Motchebon (born 13 November 1969 in Berlin) is a former German 800 metres runner. His personal best of 1:43.91 was set on 31 July 1996 in the 800 m final of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he finished fifth. Motchebon won bronze ...

in a winning time of 1:45.47. In the same season he ran his indoor personal best of 1:45.45 in Stuttgart. At the 2001 World Indoor Championships in Lisbon Botha came close to defending his title but was defeated by future Olympic champion

Yuriy Borzakovskiy Yuriy Mikhailovich Borzakovskiy (russian: Юрий Михайлович Борзаковский, , born 12 April 1981) is a Russian middle-distance runner specializing in the 800 metres. Early life Borzakovskiy was born at Kratovo, in the Mos ...

and won silver. Outdoors he won a bronze medal at the 1998

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the ex ...

. He reached the semifinals of the World Championships in 1999 and again at the Olympic Games in 2000. His outdoor personal best was 1:43.91, set in June 1999 in Oslo. Botha also has a personal best of 3:36:30 on the 1500m, which he ran in the Netherlands during 2000.

Competition record

External links

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1974 births Living people Afrikaner people South African male middle-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for South Africa Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for South Africa World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 All-Africa Games African Games competitors for South Africa Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games {{SouthAfrica-athletics-bio-stub